Wednesday, October 13, 2004

The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly drew to a close, following 8 days of meetings in Florianópolis, Brazil by 475 delegates from 75 countries. The event focused on next-generation networks (NGN) and the process for setting future global standards.

Key outcomes of the meeting included:

streamlined the ITU-T work programme with the goal of achieving greater efficiency in the production of ITU standards (ITU-T Recommendations). a new Study Group on NGN was created

the adoption of new resolutions on Internet-related issues (ENUM, spam, internationalized domain names, country code top level domain (ccTLD) names)

the adoption of a resolution on cybersecurity

the adoption of measures aimed at enhancing a greater involvement of developing countries in standardization activities

a group to oversee the sector's seminar and workshop programme and to monitor the market for new topic areas

the inclusion of a gender perspective in the work of the ITU-T with the adoption of a resolution on gender mainstreaming

the setting up of 13 Study Groups with their areas of responsibility and the designation of their chairmen and vice-chairmen. WTSA also designated the chairman and vice-chairmen of the telecommunication standardization advisory group (TSAG)

a request for a study on the economic effect of call-back and other similar calling practices in developing countries and how they impact on their ability to develop their telecommunication networks and services.